This is the 4th in a series of blog posts where Certified Athletic Therapist - Alex Barton and Certified Craniosacral Therapist - Liw Bringelson discuss concussions, and explain what we can do to help before and after your concussion.

Why Craniosacral Therapy?

Healing from a concussion is an important and complex process. Craniosacral therapy (CST) can help in both general and localized ways.

As mentioned in the previous blog post, at the general level CST allows the body and nervous system, which has been shaken up by the impact and trauma of the injury, to “re-set”. This reset allows the body to heal, from a more balanced place. For example, if you’ve had a significant injury such as a broken bone, the first thing to do is to set the bone, so that it can heal in the correct position. In the case of a concussion, there isn’t a broken bone, but the principle of restoring the body and nervous system to “balance” still applies. It is important to allow all systems in the body to get back into pre-injury position to allow the healing to take place.

At the localized level, Craniosacral Therapy can support your body to release tension in the soft tissues which can then allow the bones in your skull (aka cranium) to realign. For example, if you’ve fallen backwards and hit your head on the ice -- not only has your brain experienced a collision inside your skull, but your parietal bones may have jammed into the frontal bone.

Jamming the bones into each other creates a restriction in the frontal suture, which means the bones are not able to move in a healthy manner with relationship to each other. CST can release this restriction, and allow the bones to move better. When the bones of the skull are able to articulate, the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid can happen more efficiently, thereby facilitating the healing process of your brain within the skull.